Ghost Recon: Future Soldier First Look

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Taking the tactical shooter back to the future.

By Martin Robinson

War never changes. Well, sometimes it does; over nine years Ubisoft has transformed the Ghost Recon series from a serious-minded tactical shooter to one of the HD generation's early trailblazers and now to this, a game that accentuates the action and introduces an all-new co-op mechanic. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a departure from what has gone before, and it's a refresh that's as radical as Sam Fisher's recent turn in Splinter Cell Conviction.

Over four years have passed since Advanced Warfighter and much has changed on the virtual battlefield – back in March 2006, Marcus and Dom had yet to get sweaty together and Modern Warfare had yet to break out. It's no shock, then, that Future Soldier is different to its immediate predecessor, but just how different it is can still be a little surprising.

From the brief hands-off demonstration we're given, it seems that Future Soldier is punchier and faster paced than past Ghost Recons, its tactics now played out in milliseconds rather than minutes and its combat pushed firmly into the player's face. Showing a Ghost sprinting from cover to cover behind a road of parked cars, pausing only briefly to bring a helicopter down with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, it's proof that while Future Soldier is still a cover-based action game that blends first- and third-person play, it's a world away from the measured tactical tempo of Advanced Warfighter.

"We didn't want to reproduce what we had done with previous titles," creative director Olivier Dauba tells us in a sweltering meeting room at Ubisoft's Paris base, that's thick with the scent of a hundred games journalist's sweaty anticipation. "We thought it was time for us to move onto something new, something else."

The soldier of the future - requires a few more Duracells than the ones of today.

That something new is, in short, the link-up system, a novel and innovative take on the co-operative trend that's fast becoming ubiquitous in games. "Tons of people have been trying to figure out how you get people to play together when you've got a bunch of rowdy 14 and 15-year-olds running around, screaming and singing while you're trying to form a team and do something constructive," says the game's writer Gabrielle Shrager.

Future Soldier's solution is simple: a single button that when held tethers the player to other squad members. Up to four players can now work as one single unit, with total 360-degree vision and untold stopping power in a mechanic that exists across single-player, co-op and multiplayer. "I think it's one of the first games that will allow true collaborative play without forcing people to speak," believes Shrager. "There's no system that can do that without having to yell to your friends."

It's an intriguing idea whose success will be hard to gauge until we get to go hands-on with the game. Theoretically, skilled players can take lead, piloting three other soldiers who act like human turrets and anyone who feels too restricted can simply let go of the button and run free. Situations and set-pieces will be tailored to make the most of the mechanic, and although none were on display it essentially excuses attacks on all fronts that will ensure that Future Soldier's action will be relentless.

Perks are shared between characters when paired – so go back-to-back with an Optical Camo-boasting Recon soldier and the skill will be afforded to the whole party. It's far removed from the orchestration, but it adds a whole new element to the Ghost Recon toolset – and as Schrager assures us, "the tactics haven't diminished – they've just changed."